stay with us. msnbc's election coverage continues with the last word and lawrence o'donnell. good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes and that epic music can only mean one thing, it is election night in america. we're following a couple of key races. his home state.

>> i think he was making the case that it was going to have to be the former.

i don't think there was any doubt it was going to be a job application, because i'm willing to go into areas, he meant minority areas where you get few vote it s if you're a republica. he said i'm the guy to do that. these other guys are like trolls who won't show up, who will stay up, and he's saying i can meet the other side and deal with them. >> i agree. and i think that it is incredibly appealing message to voters, and barack obama used this message to tremendous effect. of course, in that first big speech in 2004, the idea that politics, that the -- all the rancor of politics, and with the right person in place that can be wiped away. >> if he's leading that party, he might be able to remove some of the rancor.

they're going to have to pick a presidential candidate in the next couple of years. and they'll begin to do it, and if they do it in one direction, that's one republican party. the problem is, the republican party is not dominated by the tea party, but it is dominated by them. they're scared to death to basically say we're the majority of our party, and they go along with the tail. the tail wags the dog. boehner is the example of that. he's not the head of the republican party in the congress, the tea party is. it's a good sign. if you like to see compromise, it would be a very bad sign if they didn't have a christie. in terms of popularity, peggy noonan can drive me crazy, but he said a lot of it is about the ability to connect with people. did you see the christie ads up in new york the last couple of days? they were about a guy six inches

from somebody else's face, his face and somebody else's connecting. i think it's a lot about -- look, the only popular picture of last year's election was those two guys walking on the beach, obama and christie, walking on the beach together. >> you know, i completely agree about that. but here is the thing i think that voters outside new jersey have missed about him. i think the record he's selling in new jersey is as much a product of what the opposition party is like as it is a product of what chris christie is like. there is such a difference between the mitch mcdonnell strategy for dealing with barack obama in the white house and the new jersey strategy of dealing with chris christie. the new jersey democrats did the kinds of things you wrote about in your book. they cut deals. the governor -- it was the kind

of politics the democrats were able to deal with that has given christie the ability to come before the country as he did tonight. >> and cory booker is elected senator for life, too. so you have a federal power coming out of new jersey, christie had separate election days for him and cory booker. it's a great example. i did read about how eisenhower, who was looking better all the time, would deal with people like johnson and sam rayburn. you know, we got to find a way of making government active again and doing stuff. and maybe we'll get an

immigration bill. i'm not that hopeful. i think it's very hard with the attitude of the tea party people in different parts of the country to get anything done. you said something so smart. christie is known for physical contact with the president. we think of him not hugging or anything, they're not a bromance material here. but they've been seen together. then you have these terrible cases of somebody in south carolina saying, i was ten feet from the president and it made me sick. or i told him to his face, you lie. there's a physical rejection of him as an african-american. whereas christie hugs the guy. it sounds so primitive, but it is tribal. the american system was to bring people together, not to break out into tribes.

i think the republican party is doing that. christie is not doing that. he's not tribalist. >> i agree about the threshold moment for a lot of voters for christie and the hug and the president in the wake of sandy, that image created a threshold that christie could get over, no matter what the substance -- it was ironic to me tonight, the governor was evoking the spirit of sandy. if you look into the record of sandy rebuilding in the state of new jersey, there is a lot to not like about the record of how they have rebuilt that state. you have $850 million in federal money and no one knows where it's going. yet he's standing up there saying the spirit of sandy, because the atmospherics for voters, what it communicated about where his heart is and what his beliefs are about that moment so transcended necessarily the details of what is happening with rebuilding in that state. >> it's way behind schedule. would it be worse if they didn't

get along? what's interesting is that new jersey also has, he's smart, he's shrewd. they don't mind being known as the state in it for themselves. a lot of people in big cities like that kind of shrewd, ruthless politics. and in a weird way, hugging obama was ruthless. it was getting stuff for jersey when they needed it and people liked it. hillary clinton has got a -- if these two go to war with each other, it's going to be fascinating to watch. you've got this big guy who talks street talk almost like none of your business. forget about it, that kind of talk. then hillary clinton, who has to find out a way to be that fighting for children candidate we knew many years ago.

does that resonate today or does she have to come on as someone from the state department, more diplomatic, more calm. this is going to be an interesting question of what's the right temperment for 2016? i don't know what it is yet, but i'm guessing it's more like christie than the real fire breathers like ted cruiz. we'll see. >> every poll says voters hate washington. they hated the shutdown. they hate the polarization. terry mccullough, who is mr. washington. the guy's resume, you could not invent a bigger caricature of washington. that guy, who has never held elected office, is the governor of virginia. >> but you know why, chris, because 2/3 of the people that voted for him did it because they couldn't stand the republican candidate. two out of three people saying

i'm not not really with terry, i'm against the republican. it didn't have the look of a regular victory party, did it? they're there because they know he won. i saw some labor leaders there. no big surprise. but he's going to have to turn a mandate that he doesn't have into something positive. that's his challenge. he's going to have to bring jobs to virginia. >> his first test will be medicaid expansion. >> why did the governor reject the chance to have all that money and help the working poor get to their jobs healthy? >> i completely agree with you. chris matthews, the great host of "hardball," thank you so much. catch it weekdays at 7:00 p.m.

more live coverage coming up, including a win 20 years in the making here in new york. stay with us. overmany discounts to thine customers! [old english accent] safe driver, multi-car, paid in full -- a most fulsome bounty indeed, lord jamie. thou cometh and we thy saveth! what are you doing? we doth offer so many discounts, we have some to spare. oh, you have any of those homeowners discounts? here we go. thank you. he took my shield, my lady.

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the job's not done yet. get back to work and finish the job for new jersey. that's what i'll do. i love you, new jersey. thank you very much. >> chris christie basically launched his 2016 presidential campaign, was not shy about it. more with our panel and the big night for the republican party's new star, as well as a democrat who just took new york by storm.

i know that tonight a

dispirted america, angry with their dysfunctional government in washington -- [ applause ] looks to new jersey to say, is what i think happening really happening? are people really coming together? are we really working, african-americans and hispanics, farmers and teachers, are we really working together? let me give the answer to everybody watching tonight. under this government, our first job is to get the job done. as long as i'm governor, that job will always, always be finished. >> that was new jersey governor chris christie speaking about one hour ago after his

re-election victory earlier todd. joining me now, steve carnaky, and john nichols. and karen finney and former communications director for the dnc. that part of the christie speech embodied the whole speech, which is it true you're all looking at me? am i right, all of america? i can feel your eyes on me and if you think it's true, it is true. i am all that and more. that was basically the chris christie speech. >> except i think you're being a little modest. this is chris christie. it's who he is. he didn't change his style. i think the interesting thing is, he gave one of the longer victory speeches i've ever heard. and the problem with it is, while it's an okay introduction, i still don't see how that plays

in iowa. i don't see the -- coming from the midwest, rather self-deprecating part of the country, don't overly blow your horn. here is this guy saying i'm it, i'm the only thing that ever happened. >> i think the case christie is trying to make here, this is a speech 13 months in the making. this was a speech, as soon as sandy was over, it was clear there wasn't going to be a campaign this year. when chris christie makes his statement, it's a statement to leaders in the national republican party, hey, this is the model. i have the model. everything that you've heard in the last year about what republicans are doing wrong, here i have the solution. the thing i find interesting about christie, i don't think he falls into the same trap. we peg him as a moderate, but

chris christie does not fall into any of those traps. what is the most moderate thing about him? he hugged president obama. i don't think he's going to lose republican votes just because he did that. >> we talk about moderates aren't going to win the republican party. here's the thing that angered my about chris christie's speech tonight. he talked about the spirit of sandy. i have covered sandy quite a bit, and there's $850 million in federal money for housing reconstruction. chris christie made a promise that a certain percentage was going to go to low-income people. it's clear he's violating that promise. people had to sue to find out the records of where that money is going. and listen to this, karen. this to me is a little bit of a victory of the triumph of atmospherics over reality. a university poll from october 2013, 75% of people in new

jersey severely impacted by new jersey, unhappy with the recovery, feel that chris christie is not doing enough. here you have chris christie standing up before the people of new jersey and the nation, saying the spirit of sandy, we will channel it. his actual record on sandy recovery is not very good at all. >> he did a very good job, as you said, with the atmospherics. he was the guy who was willing to go out there and hug president obama, if that's what it look, to deliver for his people. we're stronger than the storm ads. the atmospherics he's created around it make it seem like i care about it, i'm going to keep working for you, right? and that's what people like, that feeling of he's working for me, and whether or not that's actually true, he did a good job with enough money and enough ads to make people think, well, maybe it's not his fault if i haven't gotten the money i was

supposed to get. >> but here is the thing that i find frustrating about that, and i have to readjust my open theories on politics. my base line belief about democratic politics, there is in the medium term to the long-term, good politics and good policy. you do stuff, you deliver good things and you're rewarded. in this case, new jersey has a very high unemployment rate. the economy of the state is in bad shape. so it just seems to me for all those reasons, to suggest that chris christie is actually a quite talented politician, because the fundamentals are not that good. >> this is the story of how a republican in a state that hasn't elected a republican to the senate in more than 40 years, hasn't voted for a republican presidential candidate sense 1988, how a republican could get 61% of the

vote. when you lock at mass opinion, we think of things in rigid idealogical terms. i think people, especially in a state election like that, personality does count for something. people like the guy, they think he's an honest guy and they think it's very unusual in politics. the traits they see in chris christie are very unusual in politics. i think he's getting a lot of credit for that. >> it's interesting when you talk about the politics and policy aligning. you had chris christie overwhelmingly re-elected, yet you had a majority of the people in the state say, you know what? we don't agree with you on the minimum wage, we are going to raise the minimum wage. i think that goes to his talent,

because the politics and the policy didn't align there. >> john? >> i don't want to rain on the chris christie parade here, but the fact of the matter is, he had a 5-1 financial advantage. the democrats chose not to fight this race. the reality is, there was a stand down here. chris christie took great advantage of it. he had a 33-point lead in mid october, he's got a 20-point win. that's okay, but this is not what people are trying to build this into. >> in terms of the democrats -- take a listen. >> we stood the onslaught of

betrayal of our own political party, but you stay the course. >> he's right this idea of betrayal by the democrats. if democrats in new jersey thought this was a winnable election, she would never have been the nominee. the idea of democrats abandoning democrats, it's not just something that happened in 2013. his alliances in the state sha have gotten things done are with democrats. >> more on virginia, new jersey and new york city where the election result will likely have a change in law enforcement practices. our coverage continues next.

let me be clear. our world, all of our world is really just beginning. and we have no illusions about the task that lies ahead. tackling inequality isn't easy. it never has been and it never will be. the challenges we face have been decades in the making. and the problems we set out to address will not be solved overnight. but make no mistake, the people of this city have chosen a progressive path. and tonight we set forth on it.

>> that was new york city's next mayor bill de blasio. he will be the first democrat to hold the office since 1989. tonight de blasio who was new york's public advocate beat joseph lota. today the exit polls suggest his win cuts across every voting block imaginable from gender to race to income to religion. and seemed to do so by tapping into the city's frustrations with inequality. we're back. steve kornacki, jeff nichols and karen finney. stop and frisk is a policy that has sort of catapulted to national prominence.

partly in the wake of the zimmerman trial, partly because we've had a broader national conversation about what criminal justice and the prison industrial complex looks like. federal judge found it unconstitutional. that decision was reversed by an appellate court. meaning the next mayor is going to have a huge influence over what the nypd does. this is a huge substantive victory night for people who want to see changes to that policy. >> it's important to know the court didn't reverse the decision. they granted a stay. so now the question is whether this administration will put into place its own attempt to reform the nypd or whether it will be done through a federal judge. either way we're seeing change around how the city is policed, return to ideas that mayor de blasio has talked about community policing. which is an issue around policing but also around democracy.

you cannot police a city and violate the constitutional rights of new yorkers. what i think it represents is a broad statement about the kind of city we want to live in. and the election of mayor de blasio speaks to that point. >> the de blasio campaign, i was telling you this off set, it reminds me of the 2004 barack obama senate campaign. i was in chicago at that point. i was 25 years old. and every -- it was this incredible multi-racial crew of young kick-butt progressive organizers who all swarmed around that campaign and did an incredible thing with it. it just attracted these amazing people. and i feel that energy off the de blasio campaign. >> absolutely. you mentioned the broad swath of new york that got behind de blasio. just when "the times" endorsed mayor de blasio and said his message resonated with the working and poor. this is a statement about a

progressive new york around issues of education, housing, income disparity and policing. it's a progressive vision. >> the biggest national implication for me is about the role that fear of crime plays in our politics. the fear of crime disordered and distorted american politics for 30, 40 years. i mean, richard nixon's law and order down to every local mayoral race, it was driven by the fear of crime, by the fact that you were always on the edge of chaos. and unless you had someone who stood between you and the chaos, they were coming for you. you were going to be mugged. and what happened in this election is bill de blasio got up and said that's not the way we're thinking about this anymore. his opponent tries to bring back all those. he tried to run the campaign of 1973 new york. in fact, they said it's going

back to the '70s. it's going to be, you know, people are going to be shooting drugs on your stoop. and it didn't work. and steve, i think that the politics of crime have really been so central to american politics so long and they're really shifting in a fundamental way. >> sure. that's what a declining crime rate will do. that's what low murder rates will do. if you talk about the streak in the city. 1989, the last time a democrat won a mayoral race. that was what empowered the rise of giuliani. you had the crown heist. that gave way to bloomberg. every time the crime rate fell it's let's not change. let's re-elect giuliani and then bloomberg. then the republicans this year threw the old playbook at de blasio in this general election. >> karen, do you think it's changing at the national level too? >> i do.

if you take a step back, remember that part of what we're seeing also is we now know and we're sort of looking at when we wanted to be tough on crime democrats and we bought into the three strikes and you're out. now we're looking at a crisis in our prisons. and not just because of overcrowding but we're looking and re-examining the facts these laws have been applied completely unequally. and we're looking at the consequences of that in a different way. so i think we're understanding that in a different way. the one thing i want to say about crime is don't forget, communities of color, it's not that people don't fear crime. again, i think a lot of times we think of it as white people are afraid of crime. in communities of color, i mean, it's not that crime is not an issue. i think part of what you're seeing in the de blasio race in particular is so are jobs and the economy and just a fair shot. and i think that part of what bill represented for people was somebody who actually in a very real way given his family understands exactly how that

feels. >> bill de blasio ran, john, explicitly on this inequality platform. now he set himself up for something very difficult. which is converting that to governance in a city where people watch new york city politics from the outside says is controlled by the 1% as any place -- wall street is here. and they will let you know they are here. >> people are literally struggling to get by and then other people are living in the penthouse lifestyle. to begin to address that in a

fundamental way is going to be very hard. remember bill de blasio doesn't necessarily have everybody up the food chain on the side. he's going to have to struggle with national politicians. all i can say is this. that bill de blasio ought to take one lesson from rudy giuliani. the thing rudy giuliani did really well as mayor of new york is talk people through things when he was working on them. even when it wasn't easy, even when he wasn't succeeding. bill de blasio's first job is to talk people through. >> in his speech he said this is going to be hard. i want to talk about what your big takeaways are from this evening and these races. also tell you about a few mayoral races and state ballot initiatives we have results for. stick around.

i also want to thank the absolutely historic number of republicans who crossed party lines to support me. you were powerful messengers for our mainstream campaign. thank you.

>> that of course is terry mcauliffe, victorious tonight in the virginia gubernatorial race. marty walsh will be the next mayor of boston. and parker elected in houston to be the mayor. she's the democrat there. we also have some results from alabama's first congressional district in a proxy battle between the chamber of commerce and the tea party wing. it appears the chamber of commerce republican candidate is going to emerge victorious there. defeat for a tea party candidate who said the president was born in kenya. it also appears in colorado the counties that were voting on seceding from colorado are not going to secede, although that is yet to be finally determined. that big ballot initiative we talked to you about the taxes in colorado, voters in colorado have rejected that, it appears. although they will be taxing marijuana. we're back with with our panel. big takeaways from tonight. steve, i'll start with you. >> i'll start in boston. i hope you enjoyed that mayors

race. it's probably going to be the last one you get in 30 years. it is like mayor for life up there. the last one before this was 20 years ago. the big national take is virginia was, still is the premiere swing state in the country. because there is a warning shot here for the overreach of tea party republicanism. certainly that's what put terry mcauliffe over the to be. i'm looking at the map tonight from virginia and i'm looking at the same map i saw election night in 2012. there's no state in the country that tracks closer to the national average in 2012 than virginia. it's the same thing. it's a huge concentration of democratic votes right outside d.c. and just enough democrats in the right circumstances to get them over the top right now. >> karen finney. >> the obama coalition of voters is no joke. and i say that to say i agree completely with steve. if you look at virginia, i mean, what terry did that was so important was he got -- he turned out voters. he turned out what we would call drop-off voters. if you look at the margins among

women. african-americans, young people. he was able to turn those votes out. see them in the midterm elections. look at what bill de blasio did. built a broad coalition. in theory what chris christie says he did. built a broad coalition. that is a warning shot there for the democratic party in 2016 you will not have barack obama on the ticket. so you better get your act together. >> this is the big question in politics. is the obama coalition replicable. in that respect, that was a promising sign on that big, big central question for democrats. >> absolutely. it's fascinating in virginia. it looks like in 2009 roughly 22% of the voters were minority. this year it looks like 28%. that's really moving and it's showing that we're getting turnout in these off-year

elections that is of significance. but i also think another thing in virginia that we ought not miss is that the libertarian candidate got 7% of the vote there. and that libertarian candidate -- i watched that very closely. that libertarian candidate did not run right. that libertarian candidate often ran to the left talking about the drug war, talking about marriage equality. >> also favored medicaid extension. >> the national review did a whole article on how this guy is not our kind of libertarian. but i do think this is a significant thing for democrats to take in as they talk about building out coalitions. terry mcauliffe may have gotten a significantly better vote if he was with somebody other than terry mcauliffe. but if he understood some of that better. paralleling off there, take a look at portland, maine. a very liberal town. it looks like around 70% vote for legalizing marijuana.

in the state of colorado, a comfortable vote on establishing tax policies on this. i think this country is shifting in a whole bunch of ways -- >> it's the biggest change in public opinion since marriage equality. >> and democrats need to wrap their head around that. >> i think the takeaway is the populous is looking for solutions. so many people are tired with the inability of government to solve big problems. so when you look here in new york city at the vision of mayor elect de blasio. and how he wants to tackle income inequality. where in manhattan the poor has 25% have $9,000 or less. it's staggering. to come up with an approach to that and to come up with an approach to provide early education for 3-year-olds to 5-year-olds, it's big picture thinking. i think people are desperate for solution. >> the people for the expansion in virginia.

seeing a tangible change because of politics. in their lives they are going to get, hopefully, the health care that they need. that's the big winner in my book. steve kornacki host of "up" on msnbc weekends at 8:00 a.m. eastern. karen finney host of "disrupt" weekends 4:00 p.m. eastern. another big political story came to a head today. it involves the mayor of toronto rob ford and the moment we all have been waiting for. >> you read me a question in may. >> do you smoke crack cocaine? >> do we have your attention? because the answer is next.

you asked me a question back in may. repeat that question. >> do you smoke crack cocaine? >> exactly. yes, i have smoked crack cocaine. >> when, sir? >> do i? am i an addict? no. have i tried it? probably in one of my drunk l stupors approximately a year ago. i answered it. >> so that happened. yes, that was toronto mayor rob ford admitting earlier today what he has repeatedly denied for the last six months. he has smoked crack cocaine while in office. it's just the latest chapter in ford's jaw-dropping political saga.

>> here's breaking news regarding toronto's mayor rob ford. watch out for that camera, eh? >> first a quick recap. the mayor of canada's largest city was known for being the alleged star of an alleged videotape that allegedly shows him smoking crack. allegedly. reporters from toronto star said they were showed it earlier this year. >> there's been a serious accusation from the toronto star that i use crack cocaine. i do not use crack cocaine nor am i an addict. as for a video, i cannot comment on a video i have never seen or does not exist. >> just last week toronto police came forward and said not only does the rob ford crack tape exist, but they have possession of it. he did not come out and defend himself in the matter. over the weekend ford did soul

searching. vowing not to get hammered. that all changed this afternoon at an impromptu news conference when he made his stunning admission. he says he wasn't lying, he says the media didn't ask the correct questions. as the toronto star points out the question have you ever smoked crack cocaine has been posed a number of times. but ford is moving on saying his crack tape should be public viewing. >> there's been times when i've been in a drunken stupor. that's why i want to see this team. i want everybody to see the tape. >> one ally admitting i think he lost the moral authority to leave. reporters were then summoned to another news conference. the mayor arrived late but was then apologetic.

since only gays can catch it. he's anti-union, anti-tax and as mayor he's privatized half the garbage pickup, cut bus routes, forced key concessions from public sector workers, refused to provide needed shelter for the homeless. he's been pretty intolerant of those battling drug addiction. he complained who's going to want to live in a community that's invaded every day and night by drug users? perhaps the people of toronto will provide rob ford with a greater sense of charity and forgiveness than issuing them. we'll be right back.

if you like your health care plan, you keep your health care plan. these folks need to stop scaring everybody. >> it is fair to say those words are now coming back to haunt the president as the media goes to town on stories of americans who are learning -- losing their current insurance plans. now, we have covered extensively the hysterical half truthz propagating on the right and mainstream outlets about people seeing their insurance canceled. even if you throw out all the misinformation and misdirection, it is true there are some number of people who are going to lose plans that they would like. and i'm confident a year from now everyone will be better off. it is also an undeniable fact that right now the individual insurance market is being pretty thoroughly disrupted. and for some people, that really sucks. well, the coverage of this disruption has largely been sloppy and hyperbollic, it has been ill lime natured in one way. as an abject lesson in something

cognitive psychologists call status quo bias. here is an example of that. classic study out of harvard found if you give people a number of different investment options to choose from, they lean heavily towards the option framed as continuing what they are already doing. even if that's a bad choice. this basic result has been established in experiment after experiment. we are biased to like things the way they are, and fear change. we are risk averse. we prefer the devil we know to the one we don't. and it was precisely this fear of change that opponents of the last attempt at health reform used so mercilessly to their advantage. most memorably in the harry and louise ads that insurance companies ran against the clinton's health care reform proposals. >> this was covered under our old plan. >> that was a good one, wasn't it? >> things are changing and not all for the better. the government may force us to pick from a few health care plans designed by government bureaucrats.

>> you see how perfectly that ad speaks to the deep part of our psyches that fears the unknown? it is set in the future after the big change has come, and those who have lived through it are filled with regret and longing and nostalgia. they wish things had never changed. because we all know we're going to die, there are some very deep part of us that always wants things to just stay as they are right now. it is embedded in ourselves and in our souls. things are changing, and not all for the better. it was that fear of the unknown that killed health care reform back in the 1990s. fueled by those who made a lot, a lot of money from the status quo being preserved and that is the very reason that president obama and democrats pushing for health care reform in 2009 so hammered home the message, don't worry, if you have insurance, nothing's going to change for you. they also designed the entire policy of the affordable care act around making good on that

promise. the overwhelming majority of americans as much as 78% who have employer provided coverage or medicare or medicaid aren't seeing their plans change. but no amount of policy design or blanket promises can change the bedrock truth we are seeing now. change, real change, like the kind the affordable care act represents, is hard, and unwielding and it requires disruption. and some people aren't going to like it. election night is a good time to remind ourselves of the simple basic truth. politicians may try to hide or hedge that truth, but we shouldn't, because it is elemental to what it means to be a progressive to believe in progress and change and be part of the left broadly construed, to be pushing out past the frontiers of the status quo into the darkness of the unknown with the belief there is something better in the future than in the past. that things can improve, that they must improve and that our collective will and dedication and struggle can make it so.

as always, the defenders of the status quo will fight with everything they have. they will have human psychology on their side, but it doesn't mean we are destined to lose. in the end, we